Well bred? Enlightenment Thought and the Formation of an Aristocratic Ideal in Britain

Amongst the over 800 attendees at the First International Eugenics Congress in 1912 were numerous members of British aristocratic families. Many of these heard a paper by Sir Frederick Adam's Woods that argued that members of royal families were a thousand times more likely to show signs of 'genius' than the general population, and that this was a benefit of 'good breeding'. This elite interest in the relationship between status and 'heredity talent' was not new in the early twentieth century, and this paper looks at the evidence of 'pre-eugenicist' thought in the Age of Enlightenment. It considers the extent to which these ideas were being used and adopted amongst the aristocracy as a way to distinguish themselves from the 'practical men of enterprise' (Porter, 1990: 80), as well as being a way to justify their status as the nation's 'natural' leaders.